Screaming for Vengeance
A MLP:FiM story
Written by Deadwing
Rainbow Dash stood atop a hill overlooking a castle. This was it; her final battle. Finally she would have her vengeance, and Justice would be served. All the years of fighting, the years of turmoil, the years of letting her rage build up day by day; it would culminate in this last fight.
She looked down at the tattoos on her forelegs; the cutie mark of every friend she had lost in this war. The most prominent ones were of her best friends; the four ponies she had considered her sisters, and the one pony she cared for on a deeper level than friendship. There was even a silhouette of a dragon to represent Spike. She looked back up at the castle.
Tonight, Celestia. Tonight I make you pay for all the suffering you caused. Tonight, you. She started her walk down the hill. She would have flown, but the battle in Stalliongrad had ensured she would never fly again. She mentally cursed the pony who had cut her wing off. As she walked toward the castle, toward her fight, her thoughts drifted to the last memories of her friends. How each had fallen…
--
“Come on Fluttershy, you can make it!” Dash yelled as she helped the yellow Pegasus to her feet. Fluttershy had been hurt badly, first with her wings getting torn up, and then being shot in the side. It was a wonder she was still alive. “We got to get back to base!”
“She’s right sugarcube! Once we get back to base we can get you all patched up good as new!” Applejack said. Fluttershy smiled weakly and let out a small laugh.
“Oh girls, you know I was weak before. Remember when Applejack had to drag me up the mountain? Like this, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to hold on.”
“What are saying? You’re going to be fine! Now let’s go!” Dash tried in vain to get Fluttershy moving, but she stood like a rock.
“Rainbow Dash, I’m not going anywhere. They’re not far behind us, and I’ll only slow you down.” Fluttershy walked over to one of the few non-destroyed walls and laid down. “You’re just going to have to go on without me.”
“But…but…” Dash stammered. Applejack put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.
“You know she’s right Dash. Just look at her. We wouldn’t be able to make it far before Celestia’s troops caught up to us. I hate to say it, but, if we want to make it out of here with the map, we’ve got leave her.” Dash slapped her hoof away.
“I’m not just going to leave one of my friends! There’s got to be some way we can help her!” Dash yelled. She was breathing heavily, trying to hold back tears.
“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said sternly. Dash turned to face her, and saw that her eyes were also filled with tears. “Give me a gun.”
“What? You’re not going to…”
“Oh no, I could never do something like that. It’s far too scary to pull the trigger on yourself. But…” She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them the tears were gone and replaced by The Stare. “I intend on taking out every mother****er I can.” Dash looked at her a moment more before sighing. Taking out one of her pistols, she made sure it was fully loaded before handing it to Fluttershy.
Leaning in, Dash whispered, “I just know they’re going to love you.”
She turned to leave when Fluttershy called out, “Oh, and please take care of Angel for me. If that’s, um, okay with you.”
Applejack smiled sadly. “It’s no problem suga…Fluttershy.” Dash said nothing. The two mares took off running, and never saw the yellow Pegasus again.
--
They had made it to the throne room. They hadn’t expected a trap. Celestia stood in her full glory, her eyes daring the ponies before her to defy her power. Guards surrounded them. The five mares stood their ground. “Now, now, my little ponies; what exactly did you expect to accomplish here?” Celestia asked smugly.
Dash was about to reply when Twilight spoke up. “We came here to stop you Princess!”
Celestia smirked. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Twilight Sparkle. I see you’re still standing by your weedy little friends. Do you not see how futile this is?”
“I don’t care how hopeless it seems! What you’re doing is wrong, and I’d rather go down fighting then just give myself up to you!”
Celestia stopped smiling. “Well, I suppose it’s time I set an example for the ones that follow you.” The Princess let out a burst of magic at Twilight. She was slightly surprised to see it blocked. “Hmm, I guess you have learned something. This might actually be interesting.”
Celestia blasted Twilight with magical energy. Twilight responded with her own beam, locking the two in a struggle to the death. Twilight yelled out, “Girls! You have to get going! I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold her off!”
“But Twilight-” Rainbow Dash was cut off by Applejack.
“Sugarcube, you remember what happened with Fluttershy, don’t ya? There’s no use tryin’ to convince her otherwise.”
Dash knew she was right. She pulled out a grenade and cleared a path through the guards. The four mares made their escape, leaving Twilight to fight off a Goddess.
--
“Rarity you can’t!”
“I can, and I will. Honestly darling, I couldn’t see myself going any other way.”
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They were supposed to break in, blow the living hell out the place with autocannons, and get out. Rarity’s mech wasn’t supposed to get damaged. Rarity wasn’t supposed to resort to…
“You just can’t do this! Think about your friends!” Dash cried in desperation. She had already lost two friends, she wasn’t about to lose another.
“Dash, I am thinking about my friends. And I know I have to do this if we ever want to win this war,” the unicorn said sadly. She looked into the monitor, tears running down her face. “Take care of Sweetie Bell.”
She turned off her monitor before Rainbow Dash could protest again. Closing her eyes, her thoughts drifted to a filly she knew long ago. “I can hear the music, Unique.” She activated the self-destruct.
--
“Pinkie! You can’t! You know what the doctors said! Just one more binge could kill you!”
“It’s okay Rainbow Dash. I’m…I’m not afraid.”
“Just hold on! I’m going to get you to the doctor and then everything will be all right!”
“Hey, Rainbow Dash? I…I…”
--
Applejack exploded.
“APPLEJAAAAAAAACK!!!!”
Then she exploded again.
“NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”
--
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes for a moment, paying her silent respects to each of her fallen comrades. Each of their deaths still weighed heavily on the pegasus’ heart. She opened her eyes and looked back up at the castle before her. She was at the entrance now. Two guards stood in front of the gate. She calmly walked up to them.
“Halt, who goes th-AGH!” His throat was slit by Dash’s bladed wing. Before the other guard could respond she threw a knife into his neck. Taking a moment to glance at her handiwork, Dash turned her attention towards the door.
Dash took a pack of C4 out of her satchel and set it on the door. She backed up a fair distance, holding the detonator in her hooves. She smirked. “And here…we…GO!” She pressed the button. The gate was blown to pieces. Her smirk turned into a full smile as she heard the alarm go off. Tossing the detonator aside, she walked through the smoldering gate and into the main courtyard.
Guards came out of every corner, completely surrounding The Dash. It didn’t matter. She could feel blood and thunder rushing through her. She had come for vengeance for her friends, and nopony was going to stop her.
She was ready.
She was willing.
She was prepared to fight.
=====
“Okay, I’m just going to have to stop you there,” Twilight said.
“What? But why? We were just getting to the good part!” Rainbow Dash said.
The six ponies (and one dragon) were gathered in the Ponyville Library. Twilight had thought it would be a fun idea to invite everypony over and write stories, and then share their stories with everypony else. What Twilight hadn’t counted on was Rainbow Dash’s...whatever the hay she had just written.
“Yeah, Twilight, it was just starting to get good!” Pinkie said, shoving another hoof-full of popcorn in her mouth.
“I’m not saying she can’t finish. I just have some…rather pertinent questions,” Twilight said.
“Okay, shoot,” Dash responded.
“Well…what happened? This started off as a dark story about the Princess waging a war for some reason, which you never explained by the way, and then…mechs? Applejack exploding? And just what happened with Pinkie?”
“Oh! I had diabetes and couldn’t live with myself not being able to eat sweets so I went on a HUGE binge so my last moments could be as delicious as possible and then Rainbow Dash came in and tried to help but it was WAY too late at that point but then I was trying to confess my love for her and died before I could and then there would have been a funeral where Rainbow Dash was having hallucinations about me being alive like what happened to Dr. Cox and-” Applejack shoved her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth before she could continue this rant.
“Thank you Applejack.” Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash. “Was that accurate?”
Dash shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“Okay, well then why wasn’t that part of the story? Not all of it had to be, but more than what you gave us! I mean for Celestia’s sake, I needed PINKIE to explain the story to me! And what was that about Applejack exploding? We weren’t given any context!”
Dash shrugged again. “I got bored writing all the exposition stuff, I just wanted to get to the action. Trust me, I got it all figured out in my head; it makes sense.”
“Well then why didn’t you-UGH! Nevermind,” Twilight threw her hooves up in frustration.
Rarity spoke up, “Darling, just who is Unique, exactly?”
“That’s your little sister from before you lived in Ponyville and your family went broke and mckcnonowowlv wlklsndlv ph'nglui mglw'nafh –” Applejack had quieted the perky pink pony again.
“Sometimes ah feel like we need some o’ that Poison Joke handy when she gets a mite too energetic,” Applejack said.
Pinkie pulled the farmer pony’s hoof out of her mouth. “I’m just trying to give an explanation for Rarity and to reference things for the audience! Don’t even get me started on all of the music references in there! Especially the author’s name; I mean, porcupines don’t even LIVE in trees!” The other mares glanced at each other and collectively decided not to ask any questions.
Dash broke the silence, “Yeah, basically what she said.”
“But Dash, I’ve never lived anywhere other than Ponyville. And my only sister is Sweetie Belle.”
“Yeah I kind of made up some things about you guys. It just made the story about…20% cooler that way. NOW THEN,” Dash exclaimed, straightening the papers she held, “are there any other questions before I continue?” Spike held up a hand. “Yes, Spike?”
“Yeah, what exactly happened to me? You said there was a tattoo of me, and I didn’t even get a death scene!”
Dash gasped. “How could I forget? Don’t worry; I’ll clear this up right now!” Dash flipped back a few pages and scribbled something down. “There!” She held up the fixed story so Spike could see.
Spike facepalmed. “All you did was cross out the one sentence that mentioned me!”
“Yeah; now everything’s fixed! Now where was I…oh yeah! Suddenly 20 ninjas came out of nowhere…”
To be concluded…
